Via the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia, here are all the stats that you’ll need…to see what the Yankees problem, offensively, is all about this year.

First, look at the Yankees offense, in 2007, in terms of Runs Created Per Game (RC/G):

Team		RC/G
Yankees		6.19
Red Sox		5.84
Tigers		5.71
Indians		5.19
Devil Rays	5.18
Angels		5.08
Mariners		5.00
Rangers		4.85
A's		4.82
Orioles		4.81
Blue Jays		4.75
Twins		4.50
White Sox		4.31
Royals		4.18

Last year, the Yankees were the top of the heap, in the A.L., in terms of RC/G. So, where are they this season, through last night’s game? See the following:

Team		RC/G
Red Sox		5.89
Rangers		5.75
Orioles		5.29
Tigers		5.26
Yankees		5.21
White Sox		5.20
Rays		5.14
Indians		5.00
Twins		4.81
Blue Jays		4.58
Angels		4.56
Mariners		4.32
Royals		4.14
A's		3.91

So, compared to the rest of the A.L., the Yankees are not terrible, in terms of RC/G, this season. But, they are down just about one full RC/G compared to last year. Why is that? See the following chart:

Player		2007	2008	Diff
Jorge Posada	116	24	-92
Alex Rodriguez	165	107	-58
Robinson Cano	99	58	-41
Derek Jeter	109	74	-35
Bench		101	67	-34
Melky Cabrera	70	40	-30
Matsui & Nady	101	75	-26
Bobby Abreu	104	90	-14
Johnny Damon	82	92	10
Jason Giambi	42	79	37

Under “2007,” above, is the total number of Runs Created for each player. And, under “2008″ is their Runs Created, this season, to date. For the line “Bench,” I added up the Runs Created totals for all players on the Yankees with at least 50 PA that season who were not listed here as a separate player (like Jeter, A-Rod, etc.). And, for Hideki Matusi, I decided to combine Matsui & Xavier Nady’s numbers in 2008 – since it seems like Nady took over for Matsui in the line-up this season when Godzilla got hurt.

Now, let’s assume that each of these players, including the bench, will create another 16 runs this month. That’s fair, by the way. When you adjust for this, the “gap” between 2007 and 2008, in terms of Runs Created, appear as follows:

Player		Gap
Jorge Posada	-76
Alex Rodriguez	-42
Robinson Cano	-25
Derek Jeter	-19
Bench		-18
Melky Cabrera	-14
Matsui & Nady	-10
Bobby Abreu	2
Johnny Damon	26
Jason Giambi	53

Clearly, the numbers, between seasons, are down for Jeter, Cabrera, the Bench, and the Matsui/Nady combo (as they total -61 here). But, note that the numbers are up for Damon and Giambi (as they total +79 here). So, in a sense, these two groups are a push.

The biggest issue found here? The loss of Posada’s production, this season compared to what he gave the Yankees in 2007, is the biggest hurt on the Yankees “O” this year. And, that’s followed by A-Rod not having the “MVP” season this year that he had last year. Lastly, Robinson Cano’s woes with the bat are probably the third biggest reason for the Yankees losing one run created per game between this year and last season.

So, if you really want to know what’s wrong with the Yankees bats this season, here’s the answer: Posada’s bat is missing, A-Rod is not playing like an MVP, and Cano has slumped most of the year. If these three things are not happening, then the Yankees would probably be creating runs like they did in 2007.